It makes me sad that I can't tell
about all the things that have happened
since we last spoke.

Like: "I've started to smoke."
And you'd tell me to "be careful,"
even though it's ***, not cigarettes.

I finally have a job that wasn't easy to get.
It's that barbecue place I told you about-
the one that hired me in the summer

when we were still together.
I wish you read the poems I wrote you,
and at the same time I'm glad you didn't,

because in them are a lot of things I only admitted
with word and on paper.
Like: "I loved you...

and still do."
I'm not sure if you broke my heart
or just hardened it against everyone frozen.

I was thinking about you most when...
I was going to try to think of something,
but never mind,

because I realized I think about you all the time.
You were my heaven on earth, but thanks to God,
without you, the world's hell.

Hey, celebrate the loser
not just the victor
it's OK that you don't always win
like the time
your little sister could find the answer
to a Year 10 math question
and you couldn't do it
though you were older

it's OK...to be a loser, not a winner always
like the time you argued and argued
and turned out you were wrong
but you just slipped away quietly
and you've suppressed it in your memory

it's OK if you don't have stories
to tell of your victories always
and how others were wrong
and you were right
or others have no principles and ethics
how you are the 90%winner
or everyone else is ******* the planet
it's OK to be the loser
and to celebrate the loser in you
and I don't say this
because of some liberating paradox like
winners start from being losers -
but simply it's OK to celebrate losing
just losing oneself in the loser
Have no other thought in the moment -
*it's OK to celebrate the loser

Session 1
Greet people you meet;
smile and give 'em a Presidential wave



Session 2
Facilitator:
What  happened to you
Participant Jones?
Would you care to tell everyone?

Participant Jones:
This man at the mall
stepped up to me and punched me
Cause, he said, I was smiling at his woman

Facilitator:
Be undeterred, O participant Jones
Be persistent - practise positive behaviour

Session 3
Facilitator:
What's with that bandage on your head
O participant Jones?
Would you care to tell everyone?

Participant Jones:
That's where my wife's ladle landed
O positive Facilitator -
for my wife thinks I'm trying to get fresh
with the women in the neighbourhood
with my exuberant smiles and hand waves

Facilitator:
Have no regrets, practise in earnest;
the broad smile wins all hearts


Session  4**
Participant Jones did not attend;
has not been heard from since Session 3

Little Kelly doesn't feel
like going to school today
and when mom and dad
are out early to work
Kelly calls the school office -
she knows the "pro-see-dears"

"Hello," says Little Kelly into the phone
"Please note Kelly Blunder is sick;
she will not come to school today"

"Oh, sure,"  says the polite Ms Swift
of the school office
"I will take note of that...
And who is that, please?"

"Oh," comes Kelly's swift reply
*"This is my mother"

Pious John speaks to God often
and noticing his neighbour
lives easy and has a wealthy life
Pious John whinges:
"You know what I don't understand...
I pray everyday and I speak to you often -
yet Atheist Jack my neighbour
has done well and has a better life...
Why?"

"Simple, John," comes God's reply
*"I prefer it when people
don't bother me much"

Mom told us Dad had been
a spoiled brat, dependent and
his parents never let him
do any work at home

so about a year after
they were married
Mom managed to send him off
to the shops with a shopping list
(yes, it took Mom a year
to persuade him to go alone to the shops)

And dad came back home
pleased with himself,
carrying:
1 bag of flour
2 bottles of sauce
3 boxes of corn flakes
4 bottles of milk
5 bags of sugar
6 bottles of olive oil
7 bottles of vinegar
and
8 bags of salt

I am so blessed you know
all my blessed life it's been so
I'm OK, my family is OK
God's chosen to bless me and mine
according to the Law of I Choose Who

I'm so blessed easy and cool:
like the other day, you know,
my neighbour was mocking me
(in spite of my perfect features)
and he was laughing as he crossed the streets
and a car knocked him down at Walk Street -
ha, God flattens mine enemies!

It is a life full of blessings you know -
there are people out there dying of hunger
and bloated tummies and explosions
and Ebola and such
but my family and I God has continued to protect
I am so blessed, I know -
it is a just God
(I am convinced)
who watches over me
Open your hearts
and blessings will pour
on you and your tribes too
There's the law of probability
and the sweep of randomness
- but hey, it's pleasing to know
me and mine are magnificently blessed

*How smooth and easy it is
I can smile at the world in peace and self-satisfaction

Elephants come in colors
in elephant parade
If it’s green, you wait till it ripens
If it’s blue, you cheer it up
If it’s red
it's just like you and I -
it's probably embarrassed

And if you’re wondering what
you’re standing under -
gray, big and protecting you from the rain –
*it's an umbrellaphant

Do elephants talk to each other?
of course they do -
they use an ele-phone
Well, they used to
(just like they used to make trunk calls)
now they use ele-mail

And like us, they send selfies:
the girls show themselves
naked in their mud bath;
and the boys rampaging through
what’s left of the forests